Wednesday, 6 April 2016

7 April 2016

1978 was a most
extraordinary year.

It was the year
when in just over a month there were three Popes. Also, it was the year the
racist white regime in Rhodesia finally agreed to African majority rule in the
new nation of Zimbabwe. Jim Jones gave new impetus to the dangers posed by
religious cults with the ghastly mass suicide of his followers at Jonestown.
And the unions in Britain embarked upon the process of industrial disruption,
forever remembered as the winter of discontent, that led to the rise of
Margaret Thatcher.

Things were no
less remarkable in New Zealand. At 15 years, Meda McKenzie became the youngest
person to swim Cook Strait. The Muldoon Government first unveiled its brutal
streak, to be used more persistently a few years later in suppressing anti
Springbok Tour protests in 1981, by using the Army and the Police to end
forcefully the occupation of Bastion Point. Social Credit’s Bruce Beetham upset
the political establishment by winning the Rangitikei by-election. The
disastrous “Think Big” projects were unveiled, and New Zealand beat England in
a cricket test for the first time. Air New Zealand was merged with the
utilitarian state domestic carrier NAC to become the monopoly national airline
(although many would argue that as far as the domestic service is concerned, NAC’s
neo-Stalinist approach to customer service has prevailed.)

1978 was also the
first year our birth rate fell, even though our population was only about 70%
of today’s figure. But here is the rub. Of the children born in 1978, one in
four now has a criminal conviction. For men, that figure climbs to one in
three. Half of Maori and Pasifika born in 1978 have a criminal conviction. Well
over half the offending that led to those convictions occurred when they were
in their late teens and early twenties, and most criminal careers were quite
short-lived.

Similar figures
could probably be found for other years, but the message is stark. How is it that
so many of our young New Zealanders have gone off the rails, and what can be
done to prevent that? It is little consolation that many appear to have
returned to relatively productive lives after their early twenties.

Obviously, family
circumstances have a large part to play here, and the significance of family
violence leading to severe dysfunction cannot be under-estimated. While the
causes of family violence are complex, there is no doubt from all the evidence
amassed by Police, social services and health agencies that the impact is
profound, and more importantly, that building strong and resilient families and
communities, and focusing policy to that end, is at the core of resolving it. Investing
in early identification of at risk families and children is far better than
spending large amounts of money picking up the shattered pieces later on.

Family-centred
policies along these lines have always been at the heart of UnitedFuture’s
focus for this reason. While, sadly, no child can choose the circumstances of
its upbringing, every child nevertheless has the right to expect the love and
affection of both its parents. Nurturing children and strengthening viable
families must be at the centre of all our policymaking.

Many of the
babies born in 1978 are the parents of today, and their grim experiences in
their late teenage years and beyond clearly challenge all of us to ensure the
mechanisms and supports are in place to ensure their children do not suffer the
same fate.